Confusion
by Silver2018
Summary: Oneshot.  Tania van der Merwe is worrying about Wikus - and then she hears his screams.


**Disclaimer: I don't own District 9**

**A/N: This could be considered a prequel to ****Crippled****.**

**Confusion**

The grey hospital room smells of disinfectant and sweat and various body fluids. The harsh white light overhead hurts my eyes and washes out my skin. I'm colorless. Colorblind might be a better term. Everything seems to be swimming around me in shades of black, white and grey. A small insect skitters across the floor in front of me, and I track it, giving myself something to think about. For a little while, I'm lost in the movement of six legs and antennae over a grainy, dusty floor, and I feel the tumbling thoughts in my brain slowly begin to slow. The pressing fear on my chest starts easing, and I begin to think.

The previous couple of minutes are a complete blur. Well – previous couple of hours, really. But it was just those last few minutes, when I watched my husband crumple to the floor in a heap of suit, black vomit, and party hat, that seemed to blank themselves out in my vision. I close my eyes and drown out the ambient murmuring, trying to replay the scenes, trying to get myself to accept them. Wikus is sick – very sick. I have no doubt it's from his work in District Nine today. He probably got himself overexcited, which upset his stomach. And the black vomit…well District Nine is not the cleanest of locations. I wouldn't be surprised if he was vomiting up the dirt of the place. I'll need to disinfect the house as much as possible later on after he's resting comfortably, as well as all of the clothes he wore out there. My father should be able to give me the vest.

A rush of people around me startles me, and I look up, snapping out of my thoughts. After a few moments, however, they're gone. Just an emergency of the typical kind. A fall. A puncture. A gunshot…yes, even a gunshot in Johannesburg is a 'typical' emergency. Particularly now with the aliens here. I don't like calling them 'prawns'. Wikus does, and I let him, because that's what his job tells him to call them. I think they're just aliens. But I'm not comfortable with them, either. I don't like them so close, and I don't like the two men in my life that I love more than anything having to deal with them on a regular basis. But if it weren't my father and my husband in charge – it would be someone else's father and someone else's husband in charge. We all make sacrifices.

A woman's voice comes over the system. "All medical personnel, evacuate Ward 11 immediately." Around me, everyone looks up. I join them, lifting my eyes as the room bursts into movement. A second rush of people tear through the room – uniformed. Police. My stomach curls and I feel a little flare of fear poke its way back into my mind. _Don't be afraid until there's something to be afraid of, Tania._ My father's voice gives me strength. But as the uniformed men disappear around a corner, I hear another voice: higher, panicked. Not yelling. Screaming.

I know that voice.

Even as the fear begins to shout inside my mind, I clamp down on it and stand up, pushing myself forward. The world around me distorts as I approach the guard that has appeared at the entrance to the corridor. I have my mouth open, trying to form words, but they lock in my throat. Behind the guard, through a clouded window, I see a man thrashing about, throwing his thin frame against the arms of at least four other men trying to hold him down. It's his voice I hear. "Get your fokkin' hands off me!"

As I watch, the world slowing around me, I see them forcing him into a black bag. "Fok you!" he shouts, and my heart freezes in my chest. I know his voice. He has a different tone of voice between anger and fear. And he's terrified. Wikus is terrified. "What are you assholes doing to me?" He's being zipped into a body bag. A _body bag? _ He just hurt his arm. His arm was burned. _What is happening?_

The guard looks at me, and then suddenly reaches out to grab me. I realize I have thrown myself forward. "What's happening?" I ask frantically as my body clashes against the guard's, an unstoppable force against an immovable object. He won't let me pass. "What are you doing to him?" I'm on the verge of panic. _Never panic, Tania. Facts. Reach for the facts._ They're wheeling him out on a stretcher, the bag hurling itself left and right. "What are you doing to him?"

"Ma'am. Stay back."

His screams are muffled. He's screaming, zipped inside of a body bag. Is it his arm? Is it hurting him so badly that he can't stop screaming? What kind of a burn was it? Was he shot with an alien weapon?

"_Wikus!_"

"Ma'am…"

"Where are they taking him?" There's a sob in my throat. How did I start crying without realizing it? I swallow back the tears. _Hold it together, Tania._

This morning, Wikus couldn't sit still at breakfast. He ate pacing around the room, his eyes wide, speaking so quickly my head spun. "This is my big chance, Tania. I finally get to run it, you know? I finally get to be in charge!" His face was bright, his smile wide.

I love his smile.

"Please," I say, my voice catching. "Tell me where they're taking him."

The guard looks at me steadily. "Ma'am…I'm afraid I don't know."


End file.
